Advice & Tips For The Modern Woman

Month: December 2014

Everyone is busy today, especially women. Many have to juggle work, home, and family. But when it comes to themselves, they lack attention. With all of this going on in women’s daily lives, it is more important than ever to make sure that women are keeping themselves healthy.

The very first thing that women need to do is to take time out for themselves. Even just a short five minute session of quiet and relaxation will reduce stress. The second thing is diet. Women need to eat regular healthy meals to keep the immune system boosted and their bodies fueled with energy. When a woman is able to focus on staying healthy, work and home life seem not so stressful.

Meeting Your Nutritional Needs

Women have somewhat different nutritional needs than men, and this is especially true for women over 50 or when pregnancy. While many women take daily supplements, in hopes that it will help make up for the nutritional requirements they may be missing in their diet, supplements for women are not intended to be a substitute for the nutrients in food.

Supporters have long recommended taking daily supplements as insurance against nutrient deficiencies. However, Doctor David Rakel, at the University of Wisconsin, states there are literally hundreds of compounds in foods that work synergistically in the body, and that these nutrients simply cannot be replaced by swallowing a pill. Andrew Shao, Ph.D., with the Council for Responsible Nutrition agrees there are recognized nutritional shortfalls in the diets of many women, notably calcium, magnesium and vitamins C, D and E. However, this doesn’t imply supplements will prevent disease.

In 2006 the National Institute of Health concluded there wasn’t enough empirical data to determine if supplements helped avoid disease. Researchers tracked the health of 77,700 people between the ages of 50 and 70 to compare individuals who took supplements with those who did not. Dr. Emily White, Ph.D., epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said taking supplements had absolutely no effect on the participants’ health. However, White did acknowledge that those who ate poor diets did garner some benefit from taking supplements.

So the questions are; what supplements should women be taking, and why?

Vitamin C has been billed as a defense against everything from colds to cancer, and there may be some truth to the claim. As an antioxidant, 1,000 mg. of vitamin C helps boost the immune system to better destroy free radicals, viruses and bacteria.

A vitamin D deficiency has been linked to hypertension, heart disease and some types of cancer, and supplements do seem to help. In a report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2010 research showed a consistently lower risk of heart disease in women who took a 1,000 IUs of vitamin D.

Vitamin E has been taken to help prevent heart disease since it was first discovered by researchers at UC Berkeley in 1922. However, there is little clinical research to show that vitamin E supplements produce any benefit. To the contrary, recent evidence suggests that taking vitamin E supplements may actually be harmful.

Kratom has been shown to help woman who suffer from anxiety, depression, or chronic pain. Using this alternative medicine can help you avoid the pitfalls that come with using prescription drugs. Just be careful about where you buy kratom powder for sale and make sure to buy only high quality plant material. Some unscrupulous vendors will sell you low quality Kratom mixed in with other random ingredients just to increase their volume.

Calcium is very important to women, especially as they age to help prevent obstreperous. The Institute of Medicine recommends women up to age 50 get 1,000 mg. of calcium per day and women over 51 get 1,200 mg. per day.

The daily magnesium guidelines for women are 310 to 320 mg. per day and 350 mg. per day for women who are pregnant or breast feeding.

Pregnant women should be getting a total of 400 micrograms of folic acid a day from all sources.

For women who may not be getting adequate roughage in their diets, a fiber supplement can help with digestion.

As a final word of caution; an article published in the 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association reviewing over 65 studies linked high doses of some vitamin supplements to higher death rates. The lesson here is to not overdo the supplements.

At first glance, modern moms seem to have it easier than their ancestors. However, modern times come with their own challenges.

Formula or Breast Milk

One of the first decisions a modern mom has to make is whether to breastfeed or use formula. Breastfeeding might sound like an outdated concept, but moms who bottle-feed are often scrutinized by feminists and even medical professionals. On the other hand, mothers who breastfeed in public often deal with criticism. The decision a new mom has to make between bottle or breast is also dictated by circumstances like work. Breast pumps do offer a solution that falls in between the two options, but they are time consuming.

The Diaper Debate

New modern moms also have to decide whether to use cloth or disposable diapers. They are pressured by environmentalists to choose cloth diapers, but mass advertising touts the convenience of disposable ones. She then has to defend her decision because family members and friends are usually divided on that issue.

Time-Saving Devices

Modern moms have many choices for time-saving conveniences that women did not have a few decades ago. Of course these come with a price tag. This means that women with less disposable income find themselves having to work harder. They either work harder at home to make up for the lack of gadgets, or they work more hours outside of the home in order to afford them.

Changing Roles

Traditionally, men were the providers, and it was up to fathers to make sure their children had all their material needs covered. However, modern moms usually have increased financial responsibilities when it comes to the well-being of their children. Peers often judge a woman’s worth and parenting capabilities by how much stuff her children have. Even modern stay-at-home moms don’t necessarily have care-free lives because they can feel pressured by the head of household to stay within a budget.

Pressure to Buy Stuff for Children

As children grow, they expect to have more stuff because they compare themselves to peers. While the latter has always been the case, children now have more peers outside of their social backgrounds because of technological advances. Of course this burden of expectation is shared when the other parent is involved, but single moms have to carry it by themselves.

Disciplinary Challenges

What used to be acceptable for discipline is no longer appropriate. Of course this protects the well-being of children. Traditionally, it was a father’s job to discipline children, but modern moms have much more say in this matter. However, it can be hard to set boundaries when children expect to have what their friends have, whether they behave appropriately or not.

It might seem like modern moms have more pressure than ever to perform and that motherhood is not easy. Indeed, motherhood has challenges in any time period. However, increased availability of information and technology give modern moms many tools to make themselves stronger and more successful than their mothers and grandmothers.